Consular Diptychs and Christian IvoriesSource: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 8 (Aug., 1918), pp. 171-173+189Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3253683 .

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BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

OF ART NEW YORK, AUGUST, I918

CONSULAR DIPTYCHS AND CHRISTIAN IVORIES

THE evolution from the strictly secular use of ivory by the Greeks and Romans to its employ- ment as one of the media through which the story of t he Christian religion was told is well epi- tomized by a few plaques in the Pierpont Morgan Collec- tion, all shown, as it happens, in the same o case in theavn room of Byzan- tine art. Two are leaves of

examples of a very early By- zantine era, 521 A. D.; the next two belong also to a consular diptych, of the IVORY PLAQI

fifth to seventh X-XI c

century, but have been converted to the use of the Church by slight changes in the carving; the last two are plaques, of the tenth to eleventh century, frankly religious in char- acter, showing scenes familiar in Christian iconography. Copyright, 1918, by The Metropolitan Museum of Art

JUE _E

NUMBER 8

The word "diptych, of course, means a book, 'tablet,' or pamphlet of two leaves. It is a pure Greek word; and being also official, we rightly trace its use to the years succeeding Constantine, who transferred

the seat of em- pire from Rome

i BYZANTINE mor- -to Byzantium (Constantino-

pidly became the official lan- guage. The Ro- mans, always

'age anda erio tionethere-

tenacious of an- cient forms, continued long, even under the Em pire, to elect consuls, and it

tomary for these magis-

trates on their election to pre- sent to the em-

whihperor, the sena- tors, and their friends, some- times even to their powerful clients, as me-

vrosfgsBYZANTINE morials of their NTURY election, and

of the games which they gave in its honor, ivory dip- tychs, or folding tablets, bearing their 'image and superscription,' together with various figures and designs."' The inner

'Guide to the Loan Exhibition of the J. Pier- pont Morgan Collection, pp. 14-1 5.

171

VOLUME XIII

PUBLISHED MONTHLY PRICE TEN CENTS

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BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

surfaces of the leaves were covered with a thin layer of wax, on which the history of the consul, his achievements and honors, might be scratched by means of a sharp instrument called a style.

The leaves of a true consular diptych here shown belong to a series of about fifty examples of these important historical monuments. The inscription at the top of the left leaf "records the name of Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus, who was

CONSULAR DIP

521 t

Consul Ordinarius, that is, gave his name to the year, in 521. Each leaf bears also an inscription within a garland, addressed to the donor's friends and supporters. That on the left means, 'Gifts of little cost, it's true, but prolific of honors' (which might be incriminating in a disputed election!): the right reads, 'I the Consul offer these to my Fathers,' that is, 'my honored Conscript Fathers'-the Senate.

"The Church early adopted the use of such diptychs, sometimes, indeed, the very consular ones themselves, making

the necessary erasures and substitutions, for recording her illustrious ones, inscribing them with the names of the local martyrs and patrons, the local bishop and reigning emperor, and generally with the catalogues of living and dead to be specially com- memorated at Mass."

In close proximity to the veritable con- sular diptych just described are the "two leaves of a 'converted' one, or, perhaps, a later copy of an old one, in which the classic

'TYCH, IVORY A.D.

types have been made to do duty for Christian heroes. It certainly antedates the creation of traditional Christian types, and it is hard to recognize in the smooth- faced youths of the diptych leaves, those rugged and bearded protagonists of the Christian church, Saints Peter and Paul. Yet such they are, and Saint Peter bears his modest keys, and Saint Paul his precious volume in hands veiled according to the antique and Oriental reverent method."'

The two plaques of characteristically 10p. cit., pp. 15-16.

172

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BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Christian subject show each a scene under a delicately pierced baldachin-one a Cruci- fixion and the other a Death of the Virgin. On either side of the cross in the former stand the traditional figures of the Virgin and Saint John, dignified, noble, yet pathetic representations of grief. Im- mediately below Christ's feet the Roman soldiers are casting lots for His garments, and prostrate on the ground beneath is our first father, Adam, at the root of the cross, the symbolic rood or Tree of Life springing from his body. The Saviour seems to be looking down at this representative of the guilty race with unutterable pity, inclining His hands toward him in pardon.

The Death of the Virgin, the "falling asleep," as the Greek inscription here terms it, is treated in the manner almost invari- ably found in this period. The Golden Legend narrates the tradition on which the scene is based. The Virgin, now sixty years old, learns from an angel of her ap- proaching death. Miraculously from every direction come the apostles, and the Saviour appears in their midst. The Virgin is represented as lying on her deathbed, her head raised and surrounded by a nimbus. At the head and foot of the bed are grouped the apostles and disciples in attitudes of grief. Saint Paul reverently covers her feet after the sacrament of extreme unc- tion; Saint Peter bends over her at the head, holding his book in one hand and with the other probably swinging a censer, now broken off, or perhaps steadying a candle held in the Virgin's hand. In the center stands Our Lord, identified by His cruciform nimbus, holding aloft a swathed infantile figure, which represents the soul of the Virgin. Two angels hover above, their hands, devoutly covered with their sleeves, outstretched to receive the soul.

It is easy to imagine these two plaques as forming appropriate bindings for some beautiful illuminated manuscripts on which a devout monk had lavished all his skill, or as taking their places beside other panels on a casket or other article of ecclesiastical furniture: such are the probable uses both of these and of many more that were to come out of the monasteries of Europe;

for at least a couple of centuries were to pass before romance was to vie with re- ligion in furnishing themes for the ivory worker, the members of the gild to take the places of the monks in their produc- tion, and the Court to succeed the Church as a patron of the arts.

IVORY PLAQUE, BYZANTINE

XI CENTURY

THE DOSSAL OF POPE ALEXANDER VII

A FEATURE of the installation that attracts the eye as one enters the Pierpont Morgan Wing is the imposing dossal, the gift of John Marshall, that hangs sus- pended from the gallery at the north end, shedding a warm radiance about the splendid Spanish alabaster altar with its wealth of delicate foliation. As this hang- ing has occasioned much interested com- ment, a note as to its provenance may not be amiss.

A dossal is an ecclesiastical hanging at the back of an altar, although the term is sometimes applied to hangings placed at

I73

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BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

THE LIBRARY-CONTINUED

Mrs. Virgil D. Morse National Academy of Design National Museum, Dublin Alex. E. Outerbridge, Jr. John T. Patching John Wanamaker

Joseph Widener Max Williams

THE DEP'T. OF PRINTS

Anonymous Robert Hartshorne M. Knoedler & Co. Mortimer L. Schiff Felix M. Warburg

LEAF OF A "CONVERTED" CONSULAR DIPTYCH

V-VII CENTURY

(SEE PAGE 172)

i89

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